


Bandages For All the Papercuts

by mmmdraco



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 17:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After they heal, Souji spends time with his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bandages For All the Papercuts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [professormystery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/professormystery/gifts).



After Christmas, after solving the crime, after everyone healing, there had suddenly been all of this time in their lives. Souji had tried to fill it up with all of the same things that he had been doing while still regularly entering the TV, but even his closest friends seemed to get tired of him wanting to hang out all the time and the weather didn't really allow him to go fishing or to walk around town talking to people and helping them with whatever small requests they might have. He'd been home early one day, right after school, and just pacing around the living room trying to find something, anything, when he found it.

When Dojima had finally come home that day, he'd brought the chill in with him, and Nanako had complained, but it, and the recent events, had given Souji the idea. They had the new kotatsu out and Souji turned it on and mentioned his plan to Nanako and Dojima and the way their faces had lit up told him that it was worth more than just his desperation to be doing something.

Dojima had made coffee for them all and served it up to them at the table where Souji had already piled colorful squares of paper. He showed them first how to fold the paper, crease it, and moved around the table to help first Nanako's hasty fingers and then Dojima's clumsy ones. Together, they made paper cranes.

Nanako took it upon herself to count the cranes as they went along, only getting help from "Big Bro" when the numbers were higher than she'd had to work with before. The first night of working only netted them a dozen, so it wasn't a problem. By the time the first night came when the kotatsu had to be shut off because it was too warm, they had thousands. 

It was Dojima who asked finally, "How many of these were you wanting to make? I think we're running out of bandages for all the papercuts I get."

Souji shrugged. "Enough for all of the people who got hurt?"

Nanako fluttered the wings of a pink crane and set it on the table to start a new stack. "So, some of these are for me?"

"Yeah." Souji reached out and gave one of her pigtails a gentle tug. "I was really sad when you were in the hospital, you know. I want to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen again."

Smiling shyly, Nanako dragged over another square of paper and started to fold it. "Then I'll make some for you since my being hurt made you sad."

Souji shook his head. "Don't bother with that. I'm fine if you're fine. But you could make one for him." He pointed to Dojima who was scrutinizing a tiny tear along the edge of a piece of paper. "Dojima, don't you want one of Nanako's cranes?"

He laughed and pushed himself away from the table. "Hold on a sec." He went up the stairs and Souji's eyes followed him for a moment, then went back to his origami, pausing after finishing another crane so he could take a few sips of his lukewarm coffee, grimacing at the bitter taste. Dojima returned a minute later, his hands cupped carefully around something. He knelt back down and spread his hands flat to show a misshapen crane made out of notebook paper, smudged with dirt on most of the edges. "See? I already have one of Nanako's cranes."

Nanako looked confused. "What? I don't remember ever making that."

Dojima chuckled and Souji was surprised to see a hint of tears in his eyes as he looked at Nanako. "A bit after Chisato, your mother, died... Souji here came with your aunt to look after us a little. I spent a lot of time just sitting there, but Souji looked after you. And one of the things he did to keep you entertained was to teach you how to fold these. You only did a couple of them that looked like anything at all, but you gave me this one. And it's been special to me ever since, just like you are." He looked at Souji again and grinned wryly. "You, too."

With a smile, Nanako picked up the blue crane she'd folded while Dojima talked and placed it next to the notebook paper crane. "Then you should have more than one because you're really special to me." She picked up the pink one from the table and handed it to Souji. "And you're special to me, too."

Dojima wiped at one eye with the back of his hand and set the cranes down before picking up the coffee mugs from the table. "We're family. That's how it works." He glanced outside and frowned before turning back to Souji. "It's been a while since you've hung out with your friends, hasn't it?"

Souji looked around the room at the bags filled with cranes and smiled. "They were there for me when you guys couldn't be, but I want to be here with you right now." He grabbed a fresh piece of paper and folded it easily. "I see them at school, so it isn't like I'm being a bad friend. I just want to do this now, with you guys."

"So more coffee?" Dojima glanced down at the mugs.

Nanako bit her lip. "Do we have any more melon soda?"

Souji smiled and let his fingers go through the motions as he watched life play out before him in a way he never could have imagined.


End file.
